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OMG! DTG Takes on Pop Culture


OMG! This concert is 2G2BT!

If you've used or encountered these ubiquitous acronyms (which stand for “Oh, my god!” and “too good to be true,” respectively), then you’ve experienced a slice of pop culture created by the texting and instant-messaging crowd. And, love them or hate them, these linguistic shortcuts will be around until the next communication craze kicks in.

Such language is just one avenue that the Dance Theatre Group explores in its fall concert, OMG: Meditations, Musings and Moves on Popular Culture. A complement to the Clarke Forum’s 2009-10 programming on popular culture, the concert explores the forms and effects of pop culture through a variety of critical and humorous dances.

“From viral phrases in speech movement to a postmodern take on The Wiz to the racially coded language of Isadora Duncan to images of the burqa in Western media … [this concert is designed to] provoke you to consider and imagine new ways for the popular and unpopular to coexist side by side,” writes Sarah Skaggs, director of dance. “We hope our performances motivate all of us to reclaim our agency as consumers and producers of popular culture so as to create a new and vibrant cultural landscape.”

View video footage of the show.


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  • New-York-based guest artist Claire Porter choreographed the dance Matter of Influence (shown above).
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Students perform Matter of Influence, choreographed by Claire Porter. Porter recently performed in Mikhail Baryshnikov's 2009 gala and set a solo on Kansas City Ballet. She currently is performing at festivals and in other venues around the country.
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Students perform a dance that expresses the ways in which new lingo is created and spread.
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Choreographer Sarah Skaggs, director of dance, created the above work, Dancing Histories. The dance blends elements of ballet, modern dance and African dance.
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Students perform Dancing Histories during the Dance Theatre Group's fall 2009 concert, OMG: Meditations, Musings and Moves on Popular Culture.
    DTG Fall Concert
  • A student performs a dance based on Allen Ginsberg's Howl. The 1955 poem turns a critical eye on popular culture--while borrowing langauge from it. The dance, choreographed by Sarah Skaggs, uses music by Patti Smith.  
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Students perform Working Progress. The dance was choreographed by Paula Aarons, in collaboration with dancers Kelsey Albanese, Lia Brown, Jesus Cantano Robles, Anna Ciriani-Dean, Julia Coggins, Makayla Hanington, Emily Hanrahan, Constance Harris, Sara Hatch, Andrew Kamerosky, Paige Meredith, Layla Meyer and Kevin Piñero.
    DTG Fall Concert
  • The dance Working Progress is aptly named: It is a presentation of three small sections of a larger work-in-progress. The dance examines the use of veils in Middle-Eastern culture, as viewed in the Western media.
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Sarah Skaggs (right) performs in Working Progress. The work explores the role of the burqa in contemporary society. A panel discussion examining the history of veiling will be held December 1, 2009 in Mathers Theatre.
    DTG Fall Concert
  • What does the burqa symbolize? This is one of the questions addressed in the piece Working Progress (shown above).
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Paula Aarons' Working Progress.
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Choreographer Paula Aarons taught in India and in American public schools before leaving the classroom to become a leader in the promotion of quality dance programming in rural New Hampshire. She also performed as a corps member and solo artist in New York City, maintained two dance companies and served as program director for the Academy of Art and Design.
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Walking Running Flying Falling (2001) was choreographed by Paula Aarons, in collaboration with dancers Jesus Cantano Robles, Cecelia Cross, Vania Chan, Eileen Galicia, Ryan Koons, Morgan Levinson, Catherine Ludwig, Pallavi Mehra, Esperanza Obra, Megan Rosenberg, Katherine Shaw, Samantha Stahl, Megan Wall and Liza Williams.
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Walking Running Flying Falling (2001).
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Walking Running Flying Falling (2001).  
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Walking Running Flying Falling (2001).  
    DTG Fall Concert
  • In Emerald City Dance Sequence, students perform a reinvention of a selection from The Wiz, a groundbreaking movie and musical that retells The Wizard of Oz in a modern context.  
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Students perform Emerald City Dance Sequence, choreographed by Nicholas Leichter.  
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Students perform Emerald City Dance Sequence during the DTG fall concert.  
    DTG Fall Concert
  • In Emerald City Dance Sequence, students perform a reinvention of a selection from The Wiz, a groundbreaking movie and musical that retells The Wizard of Oz in a modern context.  
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Students perform Emerald City Dance Sequence during the DTG fall concert.  
    DTG Fall Concert
  • Students perform Emerald City Dance Sequence during the DTG fall concert.  
    DTG Fall Concert
New-York-based guest artist Claire Porter choreographed the dance Matter of Influence (shown above). Prev ImageNext Image